PESHAWAR, Jan 19: Law-enforcement personnel have seized a large quantity of contraband items, including liquors, charas, opium and pornographic disks, and demolished more than 40 shops in the Karkhano Bazaar.

The raid was conducted on Friday by police and the Khasadar Force at the edge of the market that connects the Peshawar city with Jamrud tehsil in the Khyber Agency.

Police officials said that for the past several years, the market had been serving as a hub of illegal trade.

The Superintendent of Police, Cantt, Ghafoor Afridi, who supervised the operation, said that the operation was initiated on Thursday on the directives of the City Police Chief Malik Saad Khan.

He said that there were about 200 shops that dealt in contraband items. Khasadar Force comprises local tribesmen working for the government.

The operation, he said was conducted with the help of 200 policemen and Khasadar Force, supported by armoured personnel carriers (APCs) to prevent any untoward incident.

SP Afridi also said that the security officials had arrested more than a dozen people besides confiscating a huge quantity of opium, charas, liquor, compact discs and other illegal items. Some non-custom paid vehicles had also been taken into custody, the police official said.